Red and Black
by Antha32
Summary: They were all just teenagers once too: Maryse and Jocelyn, Luke and Robert, everyone in the Circle. How did their lives turn out so wrong, or possibly so right? The intertwining stories of the Circle members, extending from school days in Idris to lives in New York City, 2007.


**_A/N: Hello everyone! So, some people may know that I wrote a story last summer about Maryse. She's a character that has always fascinated me, and I felt the need to write about her. I never ended up finishing that two-shot, mostly because as time went on, my ideas for the story changed. I found myself wanting to extend the story, because I could not stop wondering about what may have happened to Maryse and also Jocelyn when they were younger. So, I decided to write a long fic this time. I'm planning to tell everything I believe happened to the girls when they were in school and when they got married and had children and then everything went wrong. I wanted to see how Jocelyn fell in love with Valentine and who Michael Wayland and his wife really were and what really happened to Stephen Herondale, so I decided to think it up for myself. I'm going to try and update once a week, but really, the more people review, the more often I'll write. So I hope you all enjoy! -Sam_**

**_Disclaimer: The Mortal Instruments and these beautiful characters belong to Cassie Clare, who I adore but am not._**

**_Note: I do not speak French, so if this is completely wrong, someone tell me. Thank you. _**

_Prologue_

_The Paris Institute, 1980_

Their training room was dark and quiet. She liked it that way. She knew one day, when she hit the heart of battle, it would never be dark and quiet again, but she was all right with that. The blood of the fight sounded intriguing too, at least from the stories her brother-in-law told her. But the silence was amazing; she had the ability to hear the floor creak this way, she could count her breaths without thinking about it, she could hear her knife slice perfectly through the air.

Her knife hit the board hard, two inches away from the target.

She scowled and picked up another blade. She had to get this right today. She wanted to surprise her brother for his nineteenth birthday.

The blade sent a whisper through the room, but it missed again, this time falling to the ground.

She sweared and then looked around and sighed. She knew she should not say words like that when her mother or Sybie could be walking around. Sybie would be appalled, and would jump into lecture about how _young girls aren't to say such things_ and _you shouldn't be training, I don't know why Mother wants this _and _this is a man's job. _This would just make her want to swear more. Her sister was such a simple girl; she would never hold a knife in her hands, she would never be Marked more than an _iratze, _she would never be a Shadowhunter.

Maryse would be, though. Her mother was determined, and so was she. This was one of the only things they agreed on: if Maryse had the opportunity to do what girls five years ago could not do, she should do it, and do it better than anyone else. After all, Maryse was supposed to become what her mother, the Corinne Trueblood, only dreamed of being.

_Mother can't hear me either though, _Maryse said, still looking around the room. _She would think it an obstacle in my mission to be perfect. _She rolled her eyes. Sometimes she thought the only family member she liked was her brother, and, well, he was pretty much her favorite person in the world.

Maryse picked up another knife, but before she could throw, she heard loud voices from below. She could not make out words, so she wandered out, wondering if Sybie was having another _I'm pregnant and I need etcetera _fight with her mother in French. Those were always amusing. She liked to giggle in the corner as Sybie and Mother grew red in the face and Zachary stood there awkwardly, not understanding a word they were saying. Maryse laughed at the idea of that. She, her mother, and her siblings were fluent in the language and used in mostly in heated arguments, but her sister's husband was most certainly not.

She scampered down the stairs, two at a time. Her light feet hit the elegant carpet colored like the sea and her hands scraped the indigo wall and the bark of the railing that often gave her spliters when she wasn't paying attention. The Paris Institute was old, that was for certain; Maryse was pretty sure that most of the dust covering the ticking grandfather clocks and the cyan curtains that were embroidered with gardens was older than she was. Her family had run the Institute since her mother and father were married, but since Timothy Trueblood died when Maryse was the tender age of five, Shadowhunter men had come to check on the place once a month. Maryse supposed that was how Sybie met Zachary; his father must have brought him along on one of those visits, and left Zachary to fend for himself, instituting more visits and whispered giggles in corners and eventually a proposal. Maryse passed a wedding picture as she continued down the stairs, one of her mother with her arm around Sybie, who was bathed in gold and was leaned against her brother, who held up a laughing, periwinkle dressed Maryse.

"_This isn't just something you can do, Alexander!" _Someone, it sounded like Sybie, yelled, causing Maryse to buckle in her steps.

"_It's unforgiveable," _Zachary, who had a very distinctive voice, continued coldly.

"_Oh, I think he's very well aware of that,_" a voice Maryse did not know said. She was down the stairs now, and followed the sound of the voices to the sitting room. She leaned against the wall in the hallway outside to listen, counting her breaths. _What was going on? _This was no hormone induced argument.

"_Well, I did. It's not something you can undo._" This was her brother's voice.

"_How legal is this?_" Sybie asked with exasperation, _"He just turned nineteen today, there's no way this is legal."_

"_I promise it's legal, Sylvia," _Alec said softly. _"Jane's church in London let us. We talked it over with them. I didn't do this halfway without thinking about it."_

"_Halfway without thinking about it?" _Sybie cried. _"You obviously did this without thinking about it! This isn't something you can take back!"_

"_Oh trust me, I know that very well," _Alec spit back. _"You and Zachary and everyone here made that very clear."_

"_Know that? Alec, you married a mundane! Do you have any idea what you've done?"_

"_You did what?" _Maryse turned around the corner now, filled with shock. Everyone's heads turned to her. Zachary stood with his hand on Sybie's shoulder, whose cheeks were bright cherries. Her mother sat on their sky colored coach, her hands folded and her face blank. Alec was across the room near the door, being held back by two larger, sharp faced Shadowhunters.

"_Maryse, you should go back upstairs,_" Alec told her, trying to smile at her. His blue eyes were kind and calm as usual, which seemed odd as the men continued to hold his arms back in a not so comfortable position.

"_No," _Maryse replied, shaking her head, _"I want to know what's going on."_

"_I cannot believe this is happening," _Sybie murmured, tears falling and staining her blood-draining cheeks, _"how could you do this to us, Alec? Vous êtes le seul garçon à gauche."_

"_Je suis désolé," _Alec whispered, looking at her.

"_What is going on?" _Maryse screamed, her head moving between her brother and sister. _"What are they doing to you? What are you all talking about?"_

No one said anything. The two men holding Alec back looked at each other like mothers and fathers did when they were preparing to scold a child. Sybie and Zachary looked down, avoiding Maryse, and Alec closed his eyes, his eyelashes ink against his paper-white skin. The only one who chose to look at her was her mother. Corinne's midnight blue eyes stared into Maryse's, and her mouth was set in a thin, tight line.

"_Well, Maryse," _her mother said to her, "_your brother married a girl that he met in London when he was visiting last summer. She's a mundane, which means he cannot be a Shadowhunter anymore."_

"_Mother…" _Alec started, but Corinne stopped him, standing to her feet. She always walked tall, no matter what the situation was. She didn't hesitate as the men tightened their hold on Alec. She placed her hand on his cheek, the way she did when he was younger, and their deep blue eyes met, identical to Maryse's. Maryse stood frozen in shock as she watched.

"_Tu seras toujours mon fils, mon Alexander," _she murmured to him.

"_Je t'aime," _Alec whispered back, gulping. Sybie muffled a sob, and Zachary pulled her to him.

"_I believe we have had enough of this," _one of the men said impatiently and uncomfortably, pushing Alec away from Corinne. "_It's time to go."_

"_I trust you will let my son go after you have Stripped him,"_ Corinne snapped, "_for my family is powerful, and none of my children, Shadowhunters or not, will become horror stories."_

"_Of course not," _the other one said coldly, "_the Clave is fair when rules are followed."_

"_If you are implying that we cannot see him, or he'll be killed, then you have made that quite clear, Mr. Blackwell," _Corinne replied icily.

"_What do you mean?" _Maryse cried, pushing towards Alec. _"Why are you leaving us? Why did you do it?" _ She wrapped her arms around his waist. Blackwell and the other man tried to push her off. _"NO! NO, stop!"_

They couldn't take him away. How could he leave her? Alec, the last male Trueblood. Alec, the Shadowhunter who had been training her for years, preparing her to be a Shadowhunter. Alec, who could make her laugh like no one else could, who picked her up and swung her around when he came home from Idris, who taught her to fight when she was six, who held her when their father died. Alec, who was her favorite person and her only brother.

She screamed as they pushed her off him, and her mother held her back. She was sobbing now, struggling to get to Alec, to hold onto him and never let him leave.

"_Maryse, you are ten years old," _her mother yelled sternly from behind her. "_Stop acting like a child."_

Sybie was crying loudly behind her. Maryse could hear her, but she didn't move, she didn't look away from Alec. He looked at her for a moment, like he was preparing something to say that could comfort her. Maryse saw his familiar blue eyes blaze once more, and then the men were pulling him out of the room and out the door.

That was the last time she ever saw her brother.


End file.
